The present invention relates to navigation systems and more particularly the present invention relates to a feature in a navigation system that improves a driving experience by entertaining or educating the driver or passengers while traveling.
Navigation systems are available that provide end users (such as drivers and passengers of the vehicles in which the in-vehicle navigation systems are installed) with various navigation-related functions and features. For example, some navigation systems are able to determine an optimum route to travel by roads between locations in a geographic region. Using input from the end user, and optionally from equipment that can determine one""s physical location (such as a GPS system), a navigation system can examine various routes between two locations to determine an optimum route to travel from a starting location to a destination location in a geographic region. The navigation system may then provide the end user with information about the optimum route in the form of guidance that identifies the driving maneuvers required to be taken by the end user to travel from the starting location to the destination location. The guidance may take the form of visual and/or audio instructions that are provided along the way as the end user is traveling the route. Some navigation systems are able to show detailed maps on computer displays outlining routes to destinations, the types of maneuvers to be taken at various locations along the routes, locations of certain types of features, and so on.
In order to provide these and other navigating functions, navigation systems use geographic data. The geographic data may be in the form of one or more databases that include data that represent physical features in a geographic region. The geographic database may include data representing the roads and intersections in a geographic region and also may include information relating to the represented roads and intersections in the geographic region, such as turn restrictions at intersections, speed limits along the roads, street names of the various roads, address ranges along the roads, and so on.
Although navigation systems provide many important features, there continues to be room for new features or other improvements. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to enhancing the experience of traveling in an automobile. Ways of enhancing the experience of traveling in an automobile include providing entertainment and information. Modem automobiles are equipped with radios, tape players, and CD players that provide drivers and passengers with entertainment and information while traveling in automobiles. Some automobiles have Internet access or access to other data networks or online providers through which drivers or passengers can obtain additional kinds of entertainment and information. Providing entertainment and information to a vehicle driver and passengers while driving can relieve tedium, thereby making the experience of traveling in an automobile more pleasant and possibly safer.
Although radios, tape players, CD players and Internet access meet some of the needs of vehicle drivers and passengers for entertainment and information while driving, there continues to be a need for new sources of entertainment and information.
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a feature provided by a navigation system that includes at least one game program that runs on the navigation system hardware and that uses the data in the geographic database to conduct a game session via a user interface of the navigation system. The game program may also use data from the navigation system, such as data indicating a current vehicle location, to make the game session relevant to the vehicle location.